


The One That Got Away

by SpraceJunkie



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, and pre-story angst, another new au! ft, architect davey!, author/illustrator jack!, bc they were dumb college boys who broke up after graduation, uhhh pretty much Davey is Jack's one that got away hence the title
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-28 09:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpraceJunkie/pseuds/SpraceJunkie
Summary: Jack Kelly, Caldecott award wining author and illustrator.David Jacobs, architect.They're gay.





	1. Chapter 1

Jack Kelly, a Caldecott award winning author and illustrator.  
He still couldn’t believe it, even when he had a copy of his book sitting on his counter with the little gold circle on the front cover, and it had been there for two weeks.  
He still had his storyboards, covered in their rough sketches and random splotches of color that didn’t make sense. He still had his manila folder stuffed with the final pages he’d sent to his publisher. He still had the first printed copy on the coffee table, and the first official copy right next to it.  
It had come out six months ago, and yet he couldn’t make himself organize his work and put it away.  
It seemed like a lifetime ago he’d been half drunk, sitting in a bar with a friend and getting excited over a vague idea for a book he’d had in his head since he was in high school but never planned to write.  
After all, Jack Kelly was a freelance artist with dyslexia who might have loved to tell stories but would never be able to write one down.  
“-so then it would end like that, all happy and shit. All the kids would know they got it. Just like, happy and shit, y’know?”  
“Dude, just, like, do it. Get it out there. You got a story to tell, tell it.”  
“Yeah, ‘cause Jack Kelly is the next Victor Hugo.”  
“You don’t have to write a novel. Write, like, a picture book or some shit like that. What’s it called when a book doesn’t have words? Do one of those.”  
And thus began a year and a half of drawing and redrawing and character designs and more character designs and too long and to short and new character designs and bad coloring and recoloring and late nights and long phone calls and rants until he finally had forty pages of the most cried over drawings he ever did.  
And following that, six months of putting off finding a publisher and six months of sending it out everywhere he could find until finally somebody had picked it up.  
After that, there were three months of waiting and then a check so big he’d though it was a mistake until he’d called his publisher and had her laugh at him for not paying enough attention to anything to see how popular his book had gotten.  
In his defense, he’d actually gotten a long term commission for a series of paintings that he’d known would pay well, so he hadn’t been paying attention to how many bloggers had noticed his book or that his publishers emails had too many numbers for him to be able to decipher efficiently.  
And now he, Jack Kelly, a dyslexic artist who wrote a book with eight words in the entire thing, had a small gold circle on the cover of his book that meant out of hundreds of possibilities, his book had been chosen as the most distinguished American picture book of the year.  
The little story he’d had floating around in bits and pieces since he was sixteen was a book, and that book was a big enough deal he got recognition for it.  
Not recognition as in people recognizing him on the street. On the street, he still looked like a paint stained artist who drank way too much coffee and constantly had his headphones around his neck instead of over his ears.  
But now when he googled his name, instead of getting the Buzzfeed comics he was still embarrassed by and the couple of other things he publicly had credit for, his book came up, and his name as a Caldecott winner. And about five hundred blogs that either condemned him for publishing a book with views they didn’t like or praised him for the same things.  
Almost three years of his life had been spent focusing on one thing, maybe that was why he couldn’t really bring himself to pack up his storyboards and pick a place on his bookshelves for his copies of his book.  
Although, the storyboards were definitely getting in his way, especially considering he had a studio apartment and storyboards being set up in his living room meant that they were bleeding out into the rest of the apartment and he tripped on them every time he tried to move from the shower to his room to get dressed, and with his other easels set up across the room, he had pretty much no room for anything else.  
And there was no way to get across the floor quickly when his cell phone started ringing on the counter and he was sitting on the couch binge watching Parks and Rec to procrastinate either cleaning or working on any of his current projects.  
“Dammit. Ouch. Hello?” It was his agent, which was also still a weird thing to process. When people wanted to talk to him, they called her, and she called him to make sure he wanted to talk to them, instead of him just looking at the caller ID and deciding for himself.  
“Hi, Jack, how are you?”  
“I’m good, and you?”  
“Great! I was just calling to remind you about the thing on Saturday at the library? You’re still going, right?”  
“Of course!”  
“Okay! Great! I’m just going to call and confirm with them. Ten o’clock.”  
“Okay. Thanks, Rebecca!”  
“Just doing my job.” She hung up, so Jack carefully made his way back to the couch. Once he sat back down on the couch he sighed. He really had to clean up his apartment.  
But not today. Today was Wednesday, and that meant it was his day off from the diner, so he could relax and clean some other day.  
Saturday came more quickly than he thought it would, having him picking up a big box of books and showing up at the library. He’d done library things before, mostly in schools or during kids’ hours, and they pretty much consisted of him “reading” his book, answering questions, and talking to parents or teachers.  
Most of them wanted something really deep out of him about his book, rather than the much more simple explanation he and kids both preferred.  
The truth was, he grew up a foster kid. He barely remembered his biological parents, he’d been passed from home to home until he was eighteen and could be on his own. His book was, pure and simple, a story about kids who found their own family, like he wished he had.  
It wasn’t some super deep metaphor about the state of society today, it was a story about a group of kids who felt alone until they found each other.   
Parents and teachers were annoying.  
Jack loved the kids, though.  
None of his characters officially had names. There were five of them, and he had names for them, but nobody but he really knew them.  
Kids always followed raptly along with Jack while he flipped the pages like he was reading the book out loud, and almost always at least a couple of them read the last page out loud with him.  
“Family is the people who care the most.”   
Then they started asking questions, and every single one of them named the characters.  
“How come Timothy talked with his hands?”  
“What was that shirt Michael was always wearing under his real shirt?”  
“How come Carrie always looked sad ‘til the end?”  
Jack loved them. He loved how kids picked up on what was important and also named characters just because they needed to be able to identify them.  
Every time without fail, librarians provided him a chair or stool to sit on, and every time he ended up on the floor anyway, so he could let the kids show him exactly what they were talking about when he didn’t understand their questions.  
This event was supposed to be an hour in total, but by eleven thirty Jack was still sitting on the ground flipping through his pages, surrounded by kids. One by one, they left with their parents, until Jack only had a couple kids left with him, both of whom said their mom worked in the library.  
Eventually, those two left too, leaving Jack to pack the last couple copies of his book back into their box and smile at the librarian.  
“Jack.” Somebody said from behind him. He turned and felt his breath catch.  
“David.”  
When he was in college, he’d spent most of his time in the art studios, painting and drawing and laughing with his art friends.  
The time he hadn’t spent covered in paint, he’d spent with David Jacobs.  
David was everything Jack wasn’t. He was smart, he was motivated, he knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life and how he wanted to do it, his family was incredible, and for some reason, he’d still dated Jack for a long time.  
They’d said right in the beginning that they both wanted such different things, the best thing would be to break up after graduation.  
Freshman year and sophomore year and junior year and even most of senior year that had seemed so far away. Jack and David worked. They laughed together and liked the same kinds of dates and had the same kinds of friends. Then the last few months of college happened and they said their goodbyes.  
Part of Jack had been hoping really hard that he and David would have some kind of rom-com graduation and stay together anyway, but David was moving to Chicago and Jack already had an apartment ready in New York and David had an internship ready at a fancy architectural firm and Jack had his job at the tiny diner, and both of them knew that even if they could make it work for a while, neither of them was going to have enough money for travel and in the long run, their original plan would be best.  
That didn’t mean Jack had liked it.  
They’d kept up with each other for a little while, but eventually they’d just kind of stopped talking, and Jack had moved on.  
At least, until David Jacobs showed up at a library and smiled at Jack and took his breath away.  
“Hey.”  
“Hi. Uh, hi.” Jack put his box of books down and considered going for a handshake, and then a hug, and then settled on just kind of awkwardly grabbing his own wrist and rocking back on his heels.  
“It’s, uh, been a while.” David had an awkward little half smile on his face but he offered Jack his hand.  
“Yeah, yeah it has been.” Jack took David’s hand and shook it, maybe just a little bit longer than he would have shaken most people’s hands.  
“I didn’t know you were planning on writing a book.”  
“I…I wasn’t. I just kind of went for it.”  
“It’s beautiful.” David was already holding a copy of the book and he flipped it open, looking through it.  
“Thanks.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “Um…what brings you to the city?”  
“I actually, uh, I moved back. Just recently. My firm opened a new office here, and they wanted me to…well, to be in charge, pretty much.”  
“That’s great! David, that’s really great!”  
“Yeah, it’s exciting. I’ve only been here for like a month, but it’s been nice. And I saw online you were going to be here. I never said anything when I saw it published or when I saw it won, so I figured I’d come say hi.”  
“Thank you.” There was a moment of slightly awkward silence before David coughed.  
“I, um, actually have to go, but I was wondering if you wanted to catch up? Like maybe get coffee or something?”   
“I…yeah, I’d like that!” David smiled.  
“Great! I, I mean I still have your number unless it changed. I guess that’s weird. It’s been like eight years. I just…uh…”  
“It’s still the same, yeah. I think. Um, here, let me write it down for you just in case.” Jack pulled a sketchbook out of his bag and scribbled his phone number to give to David. He took it and folded it up to put in his pocket.  
“I’ll call you. Or text. Or something. Soon.”  
“Yeah. Yeah! I’ll see you around, then!”  
“Yeah!” David smiled again and walked around Jack to the door.  
Jack picked up his box of books and started to leave, thanking the librarians on the way out.  
He’d thought he was over David Jacobs years ago, when he’d dated other people and been happy dating other people.  
Obviously none of those people had worked out in the long run, and clearly, if the way he was still smiling and could still feel where David had shaken his hand, he was not over David Jacobs. At all, really.  
He supposed he’d always sort of known it, but David Jacobs was the one that got away.  
Jack had fallen in love with him and never quite fallen out of love again, and now David was living in the same city as Jack and wanted to catch up. Even though he knew it was probably just going to be exactly what David had said, catching up after not seeing each other for eight years, but a pretty big part of him was hoping that maybe the one that got away could be his again.  
Fuck, he was still super in love with David Jacobs.


	2. Chapter 2

David didn’t text for two days, and when he did it just said, “Jack?”  
After graduation, he’d deleted their text log, but not his number. He hadn’t even changed the contact name.  
It hadn’t changed in eight years, so Jack got a text from “Davey Dearest <3” at six thirty on Monday.  
“Ooh, did Jacky get a boyfriend?”  
Of course that was when Race chose to snatch Jack’s phone and read the notification.  
“He’s…no.”  
“His name is Davey Dearest with a heart. Finch! Does this contact name say boyfriend to you?” Finch paused on his way to the kitchen to read the contact name and actually laughed at him.  
“If there’s a heart in his contact name, he’s your boyfriend.”  
“No, he’s not.” Race stepped around him, handing back the phone and picking up a tray of food.  
“Explain the heart then, Jacky boy.”  
“He…we used to date, and I never changed it.”  
“Wait, when did you date somebody named Davey? And why did you never change his contact name after you broke up?” Jack could tell Race was making fun of him.  
“It wasn’t a bad break up, I just never changed it, okay? More people are sitting down in your section, you should probably go do your job.”  
“You didn’t answer my first question!”  
“College. I dated him in college, we broke up mutually at graduation, and he’s in town. Fuck off.” Race stuck his tongue out at Jack, but moved to get back to work. Jack watched his face shift into his customer service persona before he turned and opened David’s message.  
 _That’s me!_ He sent back. He saw David start typing but had to get back to work before the message came through.  
By the time he had a break, he could look at the circle David had talked himself in.  
 _I was thinking maybe we could meet tomorrow sometime?_  
 _If you can’t that’s fine._  
 _I’m free lunch most days._  
 _Or not._  
 _I guess this is kind of weird._  
 _You did say you wanted to get coffee right?_  
 _Sorry for texting so much I guess I just psyched myself out._  
Jack couldn’t help but laugh a little bit while he pressed the call button. David picked up after the second ring.  
“Jack? Hi.”  
“Hi! Sorry I wasn’t responding, I’m working the dinner shift tonight.”  
“No, it’s fine, I, uh, yeah.” Jack could picture the look on David’s face as he awkwardly trailed off.  
“Anyway, I only have a couple minutes but tomorrow would be great!”  
“Okay! Okay, awesome! Um…are you working tomorrow, or what time?”  
“I’m working the dinner shift again tomorrow, actually, so I’m free until four-thirty.”  
“Okay! Um, I have lunch at twelve fifteen if you want to meet then.”  
“Yeah, that would be great! Where should we go?”  
“Um, there’s a really nice little café pretty close to where I work, if you want to meet there.”  
“Sounds good! Um, I have to go, but you could just text me the address or name or whatever and I’ll be there!”  
“Okay! Um, see you then!”  
“See you!” Jack hung up and turned around to find Race standing behind him, smirking.  
“So you’re getting back together, then?”  
“No.”  
“You’re meeting for lunch.”  
“Because we haven’t seen each other in eight years and, like I already said, it was a mutual break up. He wanted to catch up.”  
“Catch up.” Race wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.  
“Shut up!”  
“Get back to work, Jacky boy!”  
By the end of his shift, David had sent him the name and address of where they would meet.  
 _Sounds great! See you then!_  
The café David had picked was a cute little place on the ground floor of an apartment building full of plants and sunlight. Jack could tell that it would be beautiful when sun came in, but when Jack walked in the sun was behind a cloud, so it was just kind of vaguely green and grayish inside.  
He had a text from David saying he would be a couple minutes late because he had gotten stuck in a meeting, so he just smiled at the person behind the counter and sat down at a little table by the windows.  
“Jack! Hey!” David slid into his seat across from Jack, and for the second time that week Jack felt his breath catch because of him.  
In college, David had dressed nice but in a very nerdy sort of way. You know, sweater vests and khakis and things like that. Now he was wearing decidedly less nerdy but still very nice. And he looked good.  
The artist in Jack appreciated the way his tie brought out the gold fleck in his eyes and how his kippah matched his shirt almost exactly and how his jacket matched both colors nicely.  
The gay in Jack appreciated how well the outfit fit him and how good he looked.  
The gay in Jack was definitely winning the competition for which school of thought was going to be the one he payed attention to. David looked _good_.  
“Hi!”  
It had been a good move to give up on sweater vests. He looked much better in normal vests. They hugged his chest nicely when he took off his jacket.  
The gay in Jack was coming very close to making a fool out of every other facet of Jack’s personality.  
“Sorry I was late, there was a meeting and it ran late, so I ran late and yeah. Sorry.” David smiled at him.  
“No, it’s fine. I’ve only been here for a couple minutes.” When she noticed two people sitting the table, the girl behind the counter came over and took their order.  
“Can I have a turkey club and just a sparkling water, please?”  
“I’ll just have a coffee, thanks.”  
“Black?”  
“Just cream.” She smiled at the two of them and walked away.  
“So.” David said. “Eight years. What’s been going on in eight years?”  
“Well.” Jack thought for a second. “I’m technically a manager at the diner. Doesn’t mean much, really, just that I get better pay and more vacation days. I drew a book. Published it. Won an award. Painted a lot.” David laughed. “How about you?”  
“I finished my internship, obviously. Um, helped design a couple of things, which meant I got yelled at a lot for things I didn’t do for a while. And then I designed a mall. And, um, now I’m here.”  
“Both of us are really bad at small talk.”   
“We kind of always have been.” Jack laughed out loud.  
“Remember the first time we talked?”  
“God, do I.” David shook his head. “If I recall, it consisted of you spilling on me and both of us not actually saying anything for like, forty minutes.”  
“Hey, I mean, somehow we did end up talking.”   
It didn’t take long for them to fall into an actual, easy conversation. It felt like old times.  
Eventually though, Davey looked at his watch and said he had to go.  
“I’ll see you, though, right?” He said while he shrugged his jacket back on.  
He looked so good. He’d changed his hair at some point, it was longer and swooped more over his forehead. His pants fit him well, too. That was a creepy thing to notice. Gay Jack needed to stop overriding Artist Jack and Sensible Jack before Jack as a whole did something stupid.  
“Yeah! Yeah, I mean, we should!”  
“Okay, good! I’ll see you around, Jack!”  
“Bye!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I didn't know how to get to the next part without a chapter break!
> 
> As always, I'm Asper, my tumblr is @enby-crutchie, and I love kudos and comments!

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to Byrd for constantly validating (and enabling) me and Isa and Em who just straight up told me this concept was valid before I even had a plot and my document literally just said "Jack Kelly, a Caldecott award winning author and illustrator." 
> 
> As usual, my name is Asper, my tumblr is enby-crutchie, and I like kudos and love comments!
> 
> The next chapter shouldn't take too long to go up!


End file.
